Can Digital Technology Advance the Development of Treatments for Alzheimer’s Disease?

Abstract

The report explores the potential digital technology has to generate novel endpoints and digital biomarkers for Alzheimer’s disease drug development studies. Drawing from literature and novel pilots, we explore the value of innovative digital technology to digitize physiological behaviours such as sleep disturbance and gait changes. Technology now exists to monitor and quantify our use and interaction with electronics in the home, the use of social platforms and smart-phones, geolocation, sleep and activity patterns. These multimodal digital data are a feasible alternative to capturing the more complex activities of daily living that require higher cognitive processes and are a sensitive predictor of disease. The combination of biosensors and the internet of things (IoT), offers the potential to collect highly relevant, objective data in a continuous, passive and low burden manner. Digital endpoints and biomarkers could have value in the diagnosis, monitoring and development of therapies for patients living with Alzheimer’s disease.